Card stencil



Aug- 5, 1940. H. P. ELLIOTT 2,210,712

CARD STENCIL Filed Aug. 5, 1939 Jol-m Dos Dom/ILLE DOEAu-VE f)wvl DOEINVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 6, 1940 UNITED STATES CARD STENCILHarmon P. Elliott, Watertown, Mass., assignor to The Elliott AddressingMachine Company, a

corporation of Massachusetts Application August 3, 1939, serial No.288,127

8 Claims.

This invention consists in a small but very useful improvement on thetype of card stencils and blanks for making same which have beenmarketed for many years in connection with ad- 5 dressing machines toform therewith a species of printing apparatus, and it embodies asuccessful solution of a long standing difliculty often encounteredduring the operation of such apparatus.

10 The well known general features of construction of such card stencilscomprise a rectangular frame composed of two sections of cardboard orsimilar stiff paper fabric superposed with their outer edges in registryone with another, a welt l5 strip of thinner but tough, flexiblematerial cemented between said cardboard sections but having its inneredge portions projecting slightly beyond their inner edges, and a panelof properly coated Yoshino paper havingits marginal portions overlappingand cemented to said projecting edge portions of said welt strip.

The outside dimension of such card stencils have not varied since thebeginning of the business in such apparatus, and cannot safely bechanged because they must iit into the guides and magazines of any oneof the thousands of machines now in the hands of purchasers of suchstencils. Also the stencilizable area of each has been standardized toconform to the standardized ink applying mechanism of such machines.

As a vresult of such limitations and certain preconceived ideas as tocertain other requirements, a relatively wide portion of the welt stripalong the frame at each end of the card has been 5 allowed to projectinwardly therefrom and so be left free to crinkle or -buckle whenexpanded by the absorption of moisture or other cause in Aa mannerillustrated (with alittle exaggeration) in Fig. 6 of the accompanyingdrawing, and when` o ever any of the crests ofthe welt convolutions soformed approach or extend beyond the plane of the adjacent surface ofthe stencil frame they are liable to catch on the inner edge of the endportion of the frame of the next stencil in the 5 magazine stack whenthe bottomoneis being slid out .of such stack preparatoryto `its passageto the printing zone. Any such `interlocking action is liable topartially disrupt oneor the other of the stencils involved, orto jam.them together D in the discharge slot of the magazine.

Also such crests fof the Welt wavcsoften rub Y on the inked panel faceof the next stencil, while oneof them is beingpushed out of themagazine, andthe inkso picked up lis, oli'set later` on the 5 face `ofany envelope or sheet of paper. which (Cl. lOl- 127) is being addressedby said first mentioned stencil, thereby producing anl unsightly smudge.

The abovedescribed unsupported condition of the welt strip at each panelend has resulted from the end portions of the lower or back section 5 ofthe cardboard framer (meaning the back sec- `tion when one is readingthe stencil) being made narrower than the side portions thereof, asshown in Fig. 5 in said drawing, and the essence of my present inventionconsists in the discovery that 10 such narrow construction of endsections is not necessary, as heretofore supposed, but that, on thecontrary, making them of substantially the same width as the sidesections not only produces a stronger stencil but, most important ofall, permits cementing the welt sections extending across the ends sofirmly to the frame sections then underlying them, that all theobnoxious crinkling or buckling of such welt section is therebyprevented.

The best embodiment of my present invention now known to me, togetherwith an illustration of the defect in prior art forms which it isdesigned to correct, are shown in the accompanying sheet of drawings inwhich, l

Fig. 1 is an enlarged front view of such impro ved stencil.

Fig. 2 is a back view with' the stencil turned upside down.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section on line 3-3 of 30 Fig. 1 on an enlargedscale and looking in the direction of the arrows, with parts brokenaway.

' Fig. 4 is a cross section on line l-4 of Fig. 1 on an enlarged scalewith parts broken away.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary back View ona smaller 35 scale of one end of aprior art stencil, and

Fig. 6 is a cross section on line 6-6 of Fig. 5 drawn on a larger scalethan Fig. 5, and looking in the direction of the arrows thereon, these.two views illustrating the formerly occurring crinkled 40 condition ofone end section of the welt which can now be prevented by my presentinvention.,

Throughout the drawing like reference` characters indicate like parts.Referring to .'Figs. 1 to 4, the cardv frame indicated generally by F 45is composed of a front section I and a back or `rear sectionZ, .thedesignation front` or back referring to the position assumed whenv the istencil is so held that any legend which has been' o cut in thepanel Pthereof can be read. As

, shown, each of said frame sections has a uniform" width throughoutexcept along the notch 5, but

the back section 2y -is`\about*50% widerthan `'the front mese that ithas an' inner border portion1 545" 3l which projects beyond thecorresponding border of front section I.

W indicates the usual welt strip of tough, flexible material, the mainportion of which is cemented between the adjacent, opposing surfaces ofthe frame sections I and 2, as heretofore, and the portions thereofwhich overlie the exposed border portion 3 of the back framesec- 'tion 2are cemented to it, there .being also extremely narrow marginal portions4 which project still further beyond the inner edges of said back framesection.

P indicates the usual panel of Yoshlno paper having a coating which isdisplaceable laterally by type -face pressure so as to expose someportions of the loosely felted Yoshlno bres and thereby render thempermeable to ink.` Also the marginal portions of said panel whichoverlie the exposed portions of the welt strip are cemented thereto inthe usual way.

The above described construction produces a cardstencil or blank whichhas a frame of uniform cross section and consequent strength throughout,except along the short notched section before referred to. And, mostimportant of all, such improved construction leaves no part of the weltstrip, except vthe very narrow marginal section 4, free to expand to a`greater extent thanA does the' frame lF and consequently wrinkle orcrinkle as shown in Fig. 6.

As contradistinguished from the above, the` prior art stencil of thisgeneral construction, shown in Figs. v5 and 6, has always had the endportions 6 of its back frame section I2 made as narrow as those of itsfront frame section II, consequently leaving a wide marginal portion 'Iof each end section of its welt strip unconned lexcept around three ofits edges, so that it necessarily becomes wrinkled, as best shown at 8(Fig. 6), whenever it is expanded by heat or by the absorption ofmoisture to a greater extent than the adjacent end portion of frame F issimultaneously expanded. The frame, being made of specially selectedcardboard stock, absorbs but little moisture so that its coecient ofexpansion under increases of humidity ls rela tively low. The bestmaterial for use in forming the welt strip-however, has the drawback ofa much higher coefcient of expansion under similar conditions, and suchswelling isespecially developed inthe direction crossways of the webthereof which comes from the paper machine in which it is manufactured.And as these stencil blanks have all been stampedout of strips formed asindicated generally in Patent No. 1,034,600l

to Sterling Elliott granted Aug. 6, 1912, and on machines of the typeshown in the later Patent No. 1,121,080 granted to him Dec. 15, 1914,the grain of the welt strip *(i. e. the predominating direction ofthebres composing it) must run lengthwise of each suchcompleted stencil,and the maximum expansion of such welt strip on absorption of moisturewhich always develops transversely of its grain will then occur alonglines running transversely of the stencil. Consequently the resultantcrinkled condition shown in Fig. 6 has heretofore been practicallyunavoidable. And when that deformation of the parts has developed to adegree such `that the crests of some of the welt convolutions extendedbeyond the plane of the adjacent face of the frame section I2, as shownat 9 in Fig. 6, the. ends of such crests would catch on the inner edgeof the end section of the frame of the next stencil in a stack (asbefore mentioned) when one was slid past the other in" feeding thebottom stencil I out of the magazine to the printing zone. If thestencils were stacked 'face upward, asin -most addressing machines of mydesign, the

frame of the bottom stencil would catch on the wrinkled welt ofthestencil next above it while being pushed out of the stack. And if thestencils were stacked face downward the wrinkled welt on such bottomstencil would catch on the frame of the one above it while being sodischarged from the magazine. In either case the wave' crests alsobecame ink coated and offset that ink onto the envelopes or sheets ofpaper Y rear surfaces firmly to the underlying faces of the projectingportions of the back frame 2, which will not buckle, and (2) by coveringtheir front faces with the coated Yoshlno paper of panel P and theiilmof cement by which the two are held together so that less moisturecan get to the welt section sandwich so formed.

The form of stencil blank shown in Figs. 5 and 6-was adopted about 25years ago as a result oi evolution in commercial use after the formsshown in my Patent'No. 1,068,578 datedJuly 29, 1913, and in Patent No.1,480,200 granted to my father Sterling Elliott Jan. 5, 1924, hadsuccessively proved unsatisfactory in routine use, and has beencontinuously sold to users of addressing machines during all that time.'Ihe end 'section 6 of the back frame section was originally made narrowas shown in Fig. 5 because of a mistaken notion we then had that it mustnot extend to a point near an end of the standard ink carrying roll o'four machines,- which has always been, and still is 31/2 or more incheslong, while the over-all length of our stencil is only 41/2 inches. Toensure this clearance, so supposed to be necessary,-the end sections ofthe back frame have heretofore been kept narrow, as shown in Fig. 5.This impression was a carry-over from the troubles we had with stencilsmade as shown in the above mentioned Patent No. 1,480,200, the endportions of the back frame section of which came nearly under such rollends, with the result that the Yoshino panel was cut along such frameedges under Vrepeated applications of roll pressure.

' I have now discovered, however, that when said Yoshlno panel ends arereinforced by the welt sections cemented to their under surfaces andextending slightly beyond the cutting edges of the back frame `section,as shown in Figs, 1 to 4, no such shearing action occurs and stencilsmade according to my present invention may be retained in useindefinitely.

I prefer to have the width of the welt marginal portion 4 from 1/32 to1A@ inchwide and to have theA stencilizable panel'P overlap said weltstrip about 1A inch. 'I'hat forms a durable flap construction which willbend around the underlying edge of the back frame section withoutcracking.

As showing that the diiculty with the crinkling welt of the old form ofstencil has for some time Also, elaborate and costly apparatus has beendevised and employed in the stencil blank manufacture to ensure theframe and the welt strips being maintained under exactly the same mois-`jacent frame section of relatively non-hygroscopic cardboard in which itis set, and that crinkling of the former must then occur if it isconfined only along marginal portions thereof.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. As a new article of manufacture a card stencil formed of arectangular frame composed of two layers of cardboard, each-ofsubstantially uniform width throughout, with their outer edgessuperposed in registry one with another but having that layer whichforms the back of theI stencil, whenever it is in position such that anylegend cut therein can be read, extending inwardly at all points asubstantially uniform distance beyond the inner edges of the front framelayer so as to form a depressed border portion of substantially uniformwidth surrounding the panel opening in the composite frame, togetherwith a tough, but exible welt strip of substantially uniform width socemented between said frame portions that only ,very narrow marginalportions thereof project into said panel opening, and a panel ofstencilizable fabric lying within the opening of said front frame layerand cemented along all its border portions to the front face of saidwelt strip;whereby no portion of said welt strip wide enough to crinkleperceptibly on expansion is left exposed and free to crinkle.

2. An article of manufacture such as defined in claim 1 in which theopposite end portions of said back frame are made about 50% Wider fromtheir outer edges t'o their inner edges than said front frame at thesame points.

3. An article of manufacture such as defined in claim 1 in which saidwelt margin extends from about 9.6,2 to about 1,56 of an inch beyond theinner end edges of said back frame.

4. As a new article of manufacture a card stencil having a rectangularframe composed of two portions that only uniformly narrow marginalportions thereof project into said panel opening, and a panel ofstencilizable material lying within the opening in said front framelayer and cemented along all its border portions to said welt andoverlaying said back frame; whereby no portion of said welt strip wideenough t'o crinkle preceptibly on expansion is left exposed and free tocrinkle.

5. An article of manufacture such as defined in claim 4 in which saidback frame at all points is about 50% wider from its outer edge to itsinner edge than said front frame.

6. An article of manufacture such as defined in claim 4 in which saidwelt margin extends from about 1/q2 to about 1/16 of an inch beyond theinner end edges of said back frame.

7. As a new article of manufacture a card suitable for forming atype-cut stencil which has a rectangular frame composed of two sectionsof cardboard superposed with their outer edges in `registry one withanother, said sections each having a substantially uniform widththroughout but one being wider than the other so that its inner edgesextend beyond the inner edges of said other,

, a Welt strip of thinner but tough flexible material cemented betweensaid cardboard sections and overlying and extending slightly beyond theinner end edges of the widerone, and aipanel of stencilizable materialcovering the opening in the composite frame so formed and having itsmarginal portions overlapping and cemented to substantially all portionsof said welt strip which project beyond the inner edges of said narrowerframe section; whereby substantially all of both surfaces of said weltstrip are confined between and firmly cemented to oppositely disposedsurface portions of said frame and panel so that no crinkled edgesthereof are left exposed.

8. As a new article of manufacture, a stencil consisting of a. two-layerframe providing a panel opening, a windowed welt sheet positionedbetween and Vcemented to the adjacent surfaces of the frame layers and astencilizable sheet adhesively attached to the marginal portion of theWelt sheet around the Window therein, the panel opening in one framelayer being smaller than the opening in the other layer, and the windowin the welt sheet being so dimensioned as to lie within the smallerpanel opening with the marginal portionof the welt sheet around thewindow therein overlapping the end edges of said smaller panel openingand serving as a protective covering to prevent cutting of thestencilizable sheet by said end edges under the squeeze of the printingroll when the stencil is in use.

EARMON P. ELLIOTT.

